


love is... a concept.

by orphan_account



Series: Amaguuji Week 2020 [3]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Akamatsu Kaede, Bisexual Korekiyo Shinguji, Childhood Trauma, Comfort, Crying, F/F, F/M, Gay Amami Rantaro, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Lesbian Harukawa Maki, M/M, Past Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse, Prompt: Red String Of Fate, Recovery, Red String of Fate, Soulmates, Trauma, Ultimate Talent Development Plan (Dangan Ronpa), sister is disgusting and deserves no rights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24865147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “I’m sorry.”“I forgive you.”“Why?” The crack of his voice is like a stab in Rantaro’s chest.“Because I want to.”
Relationships: Akamatsu Kaede/Harukawa Maki, Amami Rantaro/Shinguji Korekiyo, Hoshi Ryoma/Tojo Kirumi, Iruma Miu/K1-B0, Momota Kaito/Saihara Shuichi, Shinguji Korekiyo & Shinguji Korekiyo's Sister
Series: Amaguuji Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795822
Comments: 4
Kudos: 116





	love is... a concept.

**Author's Note:**

> my brain was growing mold from not writing angst so here we are. dw it ends soft  
> day 3: hot topic au/red string   
> amaguuji week by @servanc0re on instagram!

Parties had never really been his thing, but after the thrill of getting over with their first midterms at Hope’s Peak and the constant pleading (and occasional death threats) of his friends was bound to sway him eventually, and they all knew it.  
It was a few minutes before he noticed the tugging on his finger.  
At first he was too busy laughing at Kokichi and Miu’s bullshit, the soft buzz of cheap beer (that Leon from class 78 had supplied everyone with) making things even fuzzier.  
Ibuki from class 77’s… “Music” wasn’t helping.

In fact, he wasn’t even the first to notice. Shuichi’s pointed stare at the hand holding his bright red cup from his perch against Kaito’s side is what brought him to his senses, and he spent a good minute looking down at his fingers before it registered in his mind. Under the dull blue and purple lights, he could make out a faint line of red wrapped around his finger, curling further over his palm and around his arm several times. 

“Guys. Guys, holy fuck.”

Kaede (who didn’t drink, but was hyper enough from the punch and the excitement of a party that you couldn’t tell the difference) wrapped an arm around him, hopping up and down on the spot. “Yesssss, o green one?”

“I think my string showed up.”

Kokichi stopped calling Miu a cum dumpster. Kaede withdrew a little to look him in the eyes. Kiibo held up his own finger as a question, prompting an irritated yell from Miu, whose hand had been jerked up. “You mean the string of fate? It has appeared for you?”

Miu rolled her eyes, ruffling the robot’s fluffy white hair. “No, dumbass, he’s talking about his tampon string. Whaddaya think he means?”

Before he could say anything, he found himself crushed in one of Kaede’s signature hugs. “Ohhhhh, I’m so happy for you! Judging by how hard it’s jerking your hand, they must be close. we should find them!”   
He hugged back, the easy familiarity between him and his friends filling him with warmth.   
Kokichi resumed his maniacal laughter. “Ohhhh, imagine if it’s the whore bitchlet here. That would be so sad.”  
“Hey, dipshit, I already have a soulmate!”  
“Kiiboy doesn’t count, he might as well be a toaster with some yarn attached.”  
“That’s robophobic!”

He rolled his eyes this time, pulling Kaede away after setting his drink down. “C’mon. You can help me find them.”

“Do you think it’s someone we know? Like someone from another class? Oh my god, what if it’s someone in OUR class?”

“Who do you think it would be?”

“Maki’s cute.”

“And a lesbian.”

“Touche- Wait, really?”

“Yeah, dumbass.” He grinned at Kaede, who seemed to be lost in thought.  
“You know, you should really shoot your-” His words were cut off by a jerk on his hand so strong that it almost sent him falling forward onto the stairs leading up.  
Stairs. His soulmate was upstairs. The look he gave Kaede silenced her questions, and they slowly looked up together.   
The landing was dark since Sonia had permanently banned anyone from going upstairs and defiling a bedroom, and no one had really wanted to argue with the princess after hearing the severity in her tone.   
But against all odds, someone was clearly up there, and the pointed yank of his entire arm confirmed that theory. 

“Woah. It’s almost like they’re pulling at it on purpose.”

He didn’t entirely love the implications of his soulmate pulling at their string so harshly, but it wasn’t the time for doubt.   
With a thumbs up from Kaede and a confirmation that she would be waiting, he took one tentative step, and then another.   
The stairs were silent under his feet, the contrast with his own stairs back home (worn and creaky from having so many pairs of shoes rushing up and down them every day) only added to the nervous pit in his stomach.

Slowly, he crept up to the landing, and though there were plenty of doors, his eyes landed on the one with a soft yellow light seeping through from underneath.  
As he expected, his string descended down under it.

Anxious and with some hesitation, he knelt down next to it, tugging the string softly.  
“Hey…?”

He was greeted with a heavy silence, before someone weakly tugged back.   
“Hello.”  
The voice on the other side of the door was so cracked and hoarse that he genuinely could not recognize it at first, but the shock of speaking to his soulmate for the first time outweighed his confusion.   
“Hey, uh… So. So.”  
“Rantaro Amami.”

“Hmm?”

“Your voice. Rantaro Amami, unless I am mistaken?”

He could recognise that manner of formal speech anywhere. He could recognise that slow, smooth tone anywhere.  
He tried not to make too obvious of a sound when he clamped a hand over his mouth, but he didn’t seem to succeed.  
“It is alright if you are shocked. I do not imagine anyone in our class would take too kindly to discovering I am their soulmate.”

“No, it’s not that… Trust me. It’s not that.”

“If you are telling me the truth, I appreciate it.” 

“Yeah, In fact, I uh. I’m relieved, actually. I didn’t think of it since we’ve never talked much, but I’d rather it be you than someone like… I don’t know, Kokichi.”

“...What?”

“Yeah. Is that a problem?”

“Well, not particularly. I do not understand, but I am glad you are relieved.” 

“I didn’t expect you to be at a party.”

“Truth be told, I despise them. But I thought… I thought perhaps I should come, for once. I still hate it, but… My string appeared.”

He’s shifted into a sitting position, back pressed against the white wood of the bathroom door. His head is spinning.  
His head is spinning, but it is nothing compared to how giddy with happiness he feels. His head is spinning, and he is happy, he doesn’t know if he deserves this or not, but he knows he’s happy, happier than-

“I tried to cut the string, I am assuming you felt it too.”

Oh.  
Nevermind.  
Nevermind.

“Oh.”

“I do not want you to take it personally, Rantaro. It was not because of you, and I trust you are mature enough to understand that.”

“I do.”  
Does he?

“Thank you. Truthfully… I have dreaded this moment for years.”

“I can get being afraid of having a soul mate, that’s normal for a lot of people. But… But maybe, we can get over it together…?”

“...I do not intend to hurt you.”

There it is.  
It always comes, and Rantaro has no fucking idea why a flimsy little string connecting them would make it any less different.  
He feels a little thump against the door, and he assumes his ‘soulmate’ has his back to the door as well.  
He would find it almost romantic if they weren’t in the situation they were in.

“Love is… A concept. It is a concept that transcends human knowledge, our strings prove that. And… Our strings are meant to bind us, they are meant to connect our very souls, meant to symbolize our apparent adoration for each other. It has been written about for centuries, it is one of the most key moments of a person’s life.  
But there is precious little information about what one must do when your soulmate has already experienced love, experienced it so deeply that nothing else could ever come close.”

Rantaro didn’t have enough fingers to count the number of times he wanted the world and himself to wither away and rot, but this was… This was beyond that. If hearts could physically break, his would have been ground to a fine dust.   
He wipes away a few stray tears that he hadn’t noticed.

“You… You’re taken, then, huh?”

“In colloquial terms, I suppose so.”

“Who is it?”

A shuffling from beyond the door. He thinks maybe he is holding himself.  
“I’m not comfortable discussing that matter.”

“That’s… Okay. That’s fine. You don’t have to say anything.”  
“...Do you hate me for it?”

“No. But… Wouldn’t they understand if you told them? What about their soulmate?”

The silence has somehow grown heavy enough for Rantaro to feel like he’s suffocating.

“No. My lover is dead.”

It isn’t just a feeling, he is suffocating. His chest is tight, and his throat is closing up, as if someone is sitting on his torso.   
The spinning in his head is back, but this time it’s not accompanied with happiness.

His eyes go in and out of focus, and he claws at his throat in an effort to fix it.  
“I’m- I’m sorry. I’m s-sorry, oh my god.”

He knows the desperation in his voice is evident, and the door swings open. He falls back with nothing to support him, the sudden fall only adding to his panic.  
Korekiyo Shinguji sits over him, an equally afraid look on what bit of his face Rantaro could see, long hair falling down and tickling his cheeks. He helps him sit up, rubbing circles into his shoulder and whispering soft encouragement to him to breathe, just breathe, and when he finally starts to, he is heartbroken all over again.

“I apologize. I promise, Rantaro, my intention was not to cause you such great pain.”

“...I know.” Still. “I’m sorry if it sounds insensitive, but don’t you think we could be something? A soulmate is supposed to be your greatest love. Don’t you… Don’t you want that?” 

“Even so,it wouldn’t be right. It would be the greatest betrayal to love when I was told not to.”

“Told not to?”

“Yes. She… My beloved, that is… Has reminded me of it since I was a child. I was not allowed to love anyone else, I owed her that much, at least. And I still do. She raised me when our parents perished. She was the only person in my life that mattered, and she still is. I love her, Rantaro, and that… That will not change.”

(Years later, if one were to ask Rantaro what the most horrible realisation of his life was, his first thought would be the realisation of who Korekiyo was talking about.   
He wouldn’t say it, of course. He had stories that didn’t involve his soulmate’s abuse.) 

He just stares off into space.  
When he remembers who the only person in Korekiyo’s life that he has ever mentioned is, he is afraid he might vomit.  
“I’m sure you know what- Know who I mean. Are you horrified by that?”

“No.” He keeps staring and lies through his teeth. “I am not.”

“You aren’t a skilled liar.”

“And you’re lying to yourself.”

“Don’t. Don’t go there.”

The tears are fresh. “But you are, Kiyo. How much older than you was she? Ten years? Eleven? I don’t know you well, but I know enough.”

“Stop it. Apologize.”

“No, Kiyo. It’s not okay. You were a child, and that is not how love is, she was your-”

“And how would you know?”  
Korekiyo is staring at him, shaking so hard that Rantaro can feel it in his own hand through the string. “You kn-know nothing, you know nothing.” His voice is shaking, heavy, but it doesn’t do anything about the bite to his words, the rage and venom behind each one. “Apologize, apologize, apologize…” He is clutching himself, nails digging hard into the flesh of his arms, fresh tears falling from his eyes.  
He is rocking back and forth and repeating it like a mantra, and Rantaro feels more than a little afraid of him in the moment, afraid of his own soulmate, and the cruel irony of it makes him want to cry.

What’s worse is the utter uselessness he feels for not being able to help.

“I’m- Kiyo, I’m sorry, I am so sorry, I didn’t want to hurt you, I swear-”

“Apologize!”

“I’m sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that, I’m so sorry.”

Cries of “apologize!” soon turn to shallow sobs, and Rantaro reaches out to slowly touch his shoulder to try and help, and it seems to work.  
Korekiyo leans forward, almost falling onto him.  
“I am… I should be sorry. I should be sorry, not you.”

“It’s okay.”

“I’m sorry.”  
“I forgive you.”

“Why?” The crack of his voice is like a stab in Rantaro’s chest.

“Because I want to forgive you.”

Korekiyo curls his fingers around his shoulder, burying his face in the soft fabric of his shirt.  
“I don’t want to love you.”

“I know.”

“But I think I do.”

“And that isn’t your fault, Kiyo.” He looks down at him to emphasize the point. “You’re allowed to love. You’re allowed to be loved.”

“I don’t… I don’t have the energy to question the validity of that statement.”

“Good. There is nothing to question, it’s the truth.” 

Kaede paces when she’s anxious, and this time is no exception.  
She has been loyally standing guard for at least 30 minutes now, walking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth for so long.  
She’s especially worried because of what sounded like yelling coming from the upper floor, but it was hard to hear over the loud music. 

She was stopped in her tracks by a hand on her shoulder, and she turned around to be greeted by a pair of striking red eyes boring into her very soul.  
“Woah. Kaede, you’re freaking out, what’s wrong?”

She stared into Maki’s eyes, trying not to panic further. “I- Rantaro found his soulmate, and he asked me to stay- Well, he didn’t ask me to, but I thought I should, so I am, but it’s been like half an hour and he hasn’t come back and I-”

“You’re panicking. Relax, breathe.” Nodding hesitantly, Kaede takes her advice. “I’m worried.”

“Trust me, it’s fine. They’re soulmates, they’re gonna be all over each other. When Kaito and Shuichi’s string appeared, training was fucking insufferable for weeks. You’re overthinking. I promise.”

Kaede nodded, trying not to blush or do something equally as embarrassing. “Yeah… You’re right. Thank you, really!”

Maki shook her head, face as neutral as ever. “It’s nothing. You needed it.” She pulls her arm off Kaede’s, crossing her arms and looking up. “So… Do you know who it is?”

“No, but if it’s another person in our class, that’d be crazy.”

“Yeah. That would make four pairs, right…?”

“Five. Ryoma and Kirumi’s string appeared last week.”

“Kirumi, huh? Lucky.”

“...Yeah. He is! They’re perfect for each other.”

“Yeah.”

Kaede looks down so that her hair can hide the burn of her face, and she can only describe the silence as awkward. Disappointingly, painfully awkward.  
Maki clears her throat.

“Well… Um. For the record, if my soulmate turns out to be someone in our class, I’d rather it be you than anyone else.”

For a minute, Kaede doesn’t even process her words.  
Then it hits her.

“I- Wait, what?”

She whips around as fast as she can, but she’s greeted with an empty room, and the familiar swish of one of the other girl’s brown twintails disappearing through the doorway.

She stands and stairs at the door in flustered shock, not even noticing when Rantaro (finally) comes back down, hand in hand with a certain anthropologist, their string glowing a bright red.


End file.
